BusinessMirror June 07, 2020

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LOST BANANA ‘BONANZA’ PHL fruit industry may have failed to capitalize on pandemic-induced demand for key export

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By Manuel T. Cayon

AVAO CITY—Banana’s lowcalorie and nutrient-dense popularity pushed the sales of the yellow fruit to other countries amid the virus pandemic, in contrast to the rest of its Top 10 peers in the orchards that all suffered a big fall in the global market.

Known for its compact array of nutrients, including fiber and antioxidants, the banana was among the in-demand fruits with a competitive and lucrative price tag.

The harsh reality, however, stares local banana players in the eye. Banana exporters in Mindanao failed to get a firm hold of what could have been a great banana bonanza.

Loser almost by default

“FOR one thing we do not really have that much bananas because of Panama disease, which continues to ravage our plantations. So even

if the demand increased, we could only export so much,” Stephen A. Antig, executive director of the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA), told the BusinessMirror on Wednesday.

The PBGEA is an association that groups the 33 major growers and exporters of banana, all doing their operations in Mindanao.

The freight-on-board (FOB) value of all fresh banana exports for the first quarter of the year, or at the time of pandemic, was $489,154,438. This value was an increase of 1.74 percent compared to the price level during the same

period last year, according to the PBGEA, citing data released to the organization by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Ninety-five percent of this export of fresh banana is accounted by the Cavendish variety.

However, the volume had actually decreased based on the monitoring of shipment reports, the PBGEA said.

“The reason for the increase in value is due to high demand from foreign markets. Banana remains the most popular fruit during the pandemic because of its low price and nutritional value,”

the PBGEA pointed out.

Why popular?

WHILE the Department of Health said the fruit has no known curative effect against the coronavirus infection, its nutrients and vitamins are known to boost the human immune defense system, vital to combat any form of infection.

Medical literature on banana shows no fewer than 10 nutrients and vitamins can be obtained from one finger of banana alone, making it nutrient-dense.

Continued on A2

Cheap beach holidays target locals with airlines grounded

By Michelle Jamrisko, Siraphob Thanthong-Knight & Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen

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Bloomberg News

ITH cash flow drying up at Thailand’s popular beach resort of Phuket, hotels are racing to restart tourism—starting with local travelers.

“If nothing changes in the next three months, we won’t be able to afford paying for staff,” said Angkana Tanetvisetkul, president of the Kata Karon Business Association, which represents more than 40 locally owned hotels in Phuket.

Across Southeast Asia—one of the most tourism-reliant regions in the world—hotels and travel businesses are slowly kicking into gear after countries like Thailand and Vietnam successfully flattened their virus infection curves and began easing lockdown restrictions.

While international leisure travel is still a long way off, hotels and airlines are slashing rates to lure locals. Even in countries where infection rates are still a worry, like Indonesia and Singapore, governments are hoping to reopen tourist hotspots like Bali and restart business travel to China and elsewhere.

In Hanoi’s usually bustling Old Quarter, hotels are scrambling to welcome domestic visitors, and beach-goers are sporadically returning to resort towns like Danang. That comes as Vietnam’s tour-

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 49.9820

LOCAL tourists enjoy a swim at Bai Chay beach in Quang Ninh Province, Vietnam, on May 31, 2020. BLOOMBERG

ism revenue plunged by nearly half from January to May, compared to the year-earlier period.

As many as 8 million foreign tourists could still come this year if the government opens borders early in the third quarter, but for now Vietnam is counting on an estimated 65 million domestic tourists to carry the industry this year.

Do Tran Phuong, operating manager of Hanoi-based Mytravel Vietnam Co., says it costs as little as 2.7 million dong ($116) for local tourists to snag air tickets and two nights’ beachside hotel stay with the sort of deals airlines and hotels are offering. That’s a saving of more than 70 percent from before the pandemic.

“That will give almost no profit, but just to prompt people to travel and resume their traveling sense again,” he said. “The population of over 90 million people is actually a very big potential market for us, especially when the virus epidemic is still going on in other countries.”

Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4581 n UK 62.9473 n HK 6.4494 n CHINA 7.0269 n SINGAPORE 35.7653 n AUSTRALIA 34.6825 n EU 56.6696 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.3179

Source: BSP (June 5, 2020)

NewsSunday BusinessMirror

A2 Sunday, June 7, 2020

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Lost banana ‘bonanza’

Among them are potassium, which contains 9 percent of the recommended daily intake (RDI) for every 118 grams of a medium-sized banana, and also magnesium, with a higher 14 percent RDI. These two nutrients alone are vital to the heart’s health.

It is also rich in Vitamin B6 and Vitamin C, one of the highly recommended vitamins to keep coronavirus infection at bay before its onset. Other vitamins and nutrients include copper, manganese, net carbs, fiber and protein and fats.

Banana’s rich fiber, antioxidants and several other nutrients make it a top choice to regulate blood sugar level, improve digestive health, aid in weight loss, support heart health, and improve insulin sensitivity and kidney health.

Lost opportunity

Production woes

HOWEVER, Antig said, a big part of the failure to partake of the price opportunity was the production level that, he said, remained low.

Production areas remained fixed from the 83,843 hectares in 15 provinces, whose area has not expanded much since the data reckoning in 2016. Rather, the industry was seeing a creeping reduction of the area size due to the effect of the Panama disease, a contagion that resembles much of the dilemma on the coronavirus pandemic with no known cure yet but rapidly infecting their respective territories.

MANUEL CAYON

WHILE the popularity of banana propped up its price during the pandemic, the Philippines failed to draw the best advantage from the lost opportunity.

First, prices of banana in most markets were quite stable, except in China as expected, Antig said.

A year before the full-blown pandemic, in 2019, the Philippine Cavendish (fresh banana) exports was

4,086,853 metric tons valued at $1.83 billion.

This was almost double from the year-earlier export in 2018 of 2,822,840 metric tons, valued at $1.25 billion FOB. The top destination markets were China, Japan, South Korea, Middle Eastern countries, including Iran, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Antig said that when the borders were closed by the 10-member economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, prices went up due to shortages of supplies.

In the case of China, a special trading partner of Asean, it reopened its borders “and prices are again erratic in China.”

MANUEL CAYON

Continued from A1

The Philippines is not alone on the boat to nowhere. Ecuador, the world’s leading banana exporter, as with many other South American exporting countries, was also tied down by the pandemic, and hobbled from capitalizing on the big demand amid the pandemic.

Like the Philippines, many banana-exporting countries were bogged down by manpower sharply reduced by the coronavirus pandemic, affecting the transport of the fruits.

In the Philippines, while authorities assured unhampered flow of trucks carrying food supply, diverse and oftentimes conflicting interpretation of quarantine restrictions caused delays.

“We have not stopped production and export. But we are encountering a lot of logistical problems for workers due to differing interpretations of quarantine measures,” Antig said.

Ecuador’s government continued to subsidize the banana industry, a technical disregard of the principle on fair trade laid down by the World Trade Organization, which discourages governments from subsidizing their industries in order to level the playing field.

Before the pandemic, the incursion of Ecuador into Asia, and into the Philippines’ market turf, had posed serious threats to the Philippines’ ranking as the second biggest exporter.

Yet, their continued government support to the banana industry allowed Ecuador to be the main threat to the Philippines, holding on to its Asian markets.

Worse, China’s tack to operate huge banana plantations in some Asian countries has borne fruit, and these countries have begun to export to China.

“In the long run the real threats would be from our neighboring countries which can produce the same bananas but at a much lower cost,” Antig warned.

While China was expanding to become an exporter someday, Filipino growers said the Philippine government could have helped “by making lands available for expan-

sion, or replacement of those affected by the Panama disease.”

However, he said, “government is making it difficult even to lease lands with ordinances fixing rentals.”

Also, as a counterweight to the turf war in Asia posed by the presence of Ecuador and other South American exporting countries, he said, “we really believe that research and development efforts would contribute a lot. Unfortunately we still have to see concrete actions from the government on this.” Sadly, R&D in the Philippines leaves much to be desired.

“For now, Ecuador is still number 1 and I believe we are number 2,” Antig said.

Cheap beach holidays target locals with airlines grounded Continued from A1

Missing boom

THE virus, and the restrictions imposed to contain it, have been destabilizing for Southeast Asia, whose rosy economic outlook before Covid-19 was premised in large part on booming international travel.

The situation is perhaps most dire in Thailand, where travel and tourism makes up about one-fifth of the economy in more normal times and employs about 8 million people. For 2020, the government expects the number of international visitors to plummet 68 percent from last year to 12.7 million. The industry will probably contract about 70 percent, according to Somprawin Manprasert, chief economist at Bank of Ayudhya Pcl. With international arrivals suspended until at least July 1, Thai tourism authorities are helping resorts throw open their doors to domestic visitors. There’s a sense of optimism in the industry that there’s enough pent-up demand to help start them on the path to recovery until international leisure travel resumes.

“Right now hotel owners and operators on the ground just need to get back on their feet,” said Bill Barnett, managing director of Phuket-based consultancy C9 Hotelworks Ltd. “People want cash flow. They’re anxiously waiting to get back to business.”

High rollers

ONE market segment Thailand sees as an opportunity when borders reopen is the high-income leisure traveler, who is being targeted with “high-roller” packages.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand is working with the Ministry of Tourism and Sports on a program to attract wealthier visitors to two regions, Phuket and Samui & Phangan, for stays of at least a month, after they’ve passed health screenings at home and upon arrival in Thailand. Billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont, senior chairman of Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group, is among the plan’s backers, urging the government to relax lockdown restrictions and focus on high-end travelers.

Across Southeast Asia, travel and tourism contributed about 12.1 percent of the region’s gross domestic product (GDP) last year and 13.3 percent of employment, according to World Travel & Tourism Council figures released in April—second only to the Caribbean on both counts, but earning more than six times the receipts.

The tourism industry’s 4.6-percent growth in Southeast Asia last year outpaced the global average of 3.5 percent.

In Indonesia, the prime tourist destination of Bali managed to avoid a severe hit from the virus, even as the country has suffered Asia’s highest death toll after India and China. The tourism sector will reopen for locals next month, with

foreign tourists potentially able to return from September.

In Vietnam, the government started sending daily mobile phone messages in early May imploring residents to boost the economy. It launched a promotion called “Vietnamese travel in Vietnam,” offering discounts for locals and free entry to tourist spots, and drawing together airlines, travel agents, hotels and other businesses to coordinate holiday packages.

“Given the current context, the domestic market is considered a fulcrum for Vietnam’s tourism industry to gradually regain growth momentum,” said Bui Thi Thanh Huong, vice chairwoman and chief executive officer of Sun Group, a property developer that’s offering discounts of as much as 60 percent at some resorts and theme parks. “It’s very difficult to predict the timing of a full recovery for the industry.”

Already, there are hopeful signs of people on the move in Vietnam, according to analysis of Apple Inc. data that aggregate requests for driving directions.

Regaining mobility

VIETNAM “is a clear stand-out,” with Ho Chi Minh residents now moving about as much as they did in early March, Wellian Wiranto, an economist with Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd., said in a May 27 note to clients. As of June 2, Vietnam had just 328 confirmed virus cases and no fatalities.

Nguyen Thu Hang, manager

SUNBATHERS lie in an area marked to enforce social-distancing measures in La Grande Motte, southern France, May 24, 2020. Grateful French families flocked to the beach at La Grande Motte on the Mediterranean shore, swimming and sunbathing in areas carefully marked to keep them a safe distance from others. AP/DANIEL COLE

of a 3-star hotel in Hanoi whose business typically relies largely on foreign tourists, is shifting focus to domestic travelers for now, with another eye on the core customers.

“We must rely on local tourists now, and hope that things will get better toward the end of the year when people feel more comfortable to travel,” Hang said. “We’re also taking this time to upgrade our facilities a bit to get ready for more guests later, when Vietnam

reopens for international visitors.”

Domestic travelers will serve as a test case for how post-Covid travel will look once international tourists can return. Digital transactions and temperature checks are likely to proliferate. Hotel grounds could be arranged differently, with socially distanced fitness equipment and buffet lines.

Large sporting events, concerts and big conventions remain far off on the horizon.

Even so, businesses face a long road of recovery—setting up a test of resilience, especially for the region’s small and medium-sized enterprises.

Angkana, of Phuket’s local business association, expects that only about 10 percent of visitors could return in the first few months after the lockdown is lifted, most of them domestic tourists. International visitors won’t return until winter, she said.

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Companies BusinessMirror

‘Diversified portfolio shielding Phoenix from virus pandemic’

By Lenie Lectura

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HOENIX Petroleum Inc. said its strategic and aggressive investments in fuel retail and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) businesses have made it resilient during a public health crisis.

The company noted a spike in residential demand for cooking fuel during the Covid-19 lockdown. It said volume increased by 39 percent on the back of consistent double-digit growth in its core markets in Visayas and Mindanao. It also established a strong foothold in the mature market of Luzon.

“Phoenix SUPER LPG has expanded threefold compared to when the company first bought the business in 2017,” it said Thursday.

Aside from changing consumer behavior, Phoenix said expansion was brought about by a “healthy inventory” and that 95 percent of its stores remained open even during the quarantine period.

In the retail business, Phoenix said its “high-gear expansion” made it more prepared to overcome the challenges faced by all oil companies. It has unveiled 126 new-to-industry stations, the highest number in company history.

Moreover, it upgraded 275 of its retail sites as part of an immediate-term program to refresh their network. As of end-March

this year, the company has 660 retail stations nationwide. Fuel retail volume, meanwhile, was higher by 9 percent, owing to its aggressive network expansion.

“We have successfully adapted to the norm of conducting business. We acknowledge that the challenges brought about by the pandemic will stay for a while, but we are working around it to continue delivering excellent service to our customers and shareholders,” said Henry Albert Fadullon, president of Phoenix.

Fadullon said the Covid-19 pandemic is proving to be one of the most challenging times for businesses especially in the oil and gas industry.

However, he noted that Phoenix is bucking the trend and overcoming the challenges because of its diversified portfolio.

Phoenix Petroleum is engaged in the trading and marketing of refined petroleum produc ts, including LPG and lubricants, operation of oil depots and storage facilities, hauling and into-plane services. Aside from its expanding retail network, it also serves major accounts in various industries, such as power, shipping, logistics, manufacturing, construction and transportation.

It also expanded to the convenience retailing business with its acquisition of Philippine Family Mart.

Insurtech vows to ‘democratize access’ to insurance products and services with online marketplace

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

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N insurance technology (insurtech) startup plans to launch an online marketplace for insurance products to provide Filipinos with “democratized access” to insurance and help the Philippines keep up with global average data.

Hamilton Angluben, founder of online insurance marketplace Kwik.insure, said his group plans to soon offer various insurance products such as health, life, travel, mobile, and automotive through partnerships with various insurers in the country.

“Our plan is to make an insurance platform that is easy and reliable for both consumers and insurance companies. We are already receiving positive feedback from insurance companies such as Sun Life, who is excited to partner with us,” he said.

Angluben, the former general manager of digital financing app Cashalo, added that his group’s strategy is to help uplift the insurance industry through technology, education, and collaboration.

“Kwik.insure will help digitalize insurance, just as Cashalo had done for financing. Our marketing efforts will be focused on educating Filipinos about the benefits and need for insurance. We will be partnering with all insurance companies that want to innovate and digitize their products as well as working closely with the Insurance Commission to ensure proper regulation and compliance,” Angluben said.

The platform will be launched “in the fourth

quarter” of 2020 and is open to onboarding more insurance providers to provide an expanded offering to Filipinos. The platform allows consumers to search, compare, and purchase different insurance offerings through a “simple and intuitive user interface.”

Angluben said insurtech could help bridge the gap between those who are insured and those who are not.

He cited data from Swiss Re Institute, which showed that the world average for insurance density (insurance premiums per capita) is at $682, while insurance penetration (premiums as a percentage of gross domestic product) is at 6.09 percent.

Meanwhile, the Philippines, according to latest data from the Philippine Insurance Commission, only has an average insurance density of $55, while insurance penetration is at a measly 1.67 percent.

“The Philippines has such a long way to go. To be at par with the rest of the world, we need to grow by 1,100 percent and 300 percent in terms of density and penetration, respectively. Insurance has the stigma of being expensive, complicated, and hassle to purchase. It is a huge challenge but therein lies the opportunity also for innovation. With the rise of financial technology platforms due to the ’new normal,’ now would be the best time for insurtech companies to help bridge the gap,” Angluben said.

Anand Stanley to head Airbus Asia-Pacific

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OULOUSE, France —Airbus has named Anand Stanley as president of Airbus Asia-Pacific, effective July 1, 2020.

Based in Singapore, Stanley will lead t h e s t rate g y a n d f u t u re p o s i t i o n i n g o f Airbus and its divisions across the region, according to a statement on Friday from the company, a global leader in aeronautics, space and airlines ser vices. In this role he will have responsibility for commercial aircraft sales and customer affairs, groupwide government affairs, industrial and joint venture par tnerships, as well as the local operations at Airbus sites across the region.

Stanley repor ts to Christian Scherer, Airbus chief commercial officer and head of International, and will work closely with the heads of Region for the Airbus Helicopters and Defence and Space divisions who are co-located at the company’s Asia-Pacific headquar ters in Singapore.

Stanley joined Airbus in 2018 as president and managing director of Airbus India, where he has overseen the Airbus business development and advanced the company’s position with key stakeholders, including customers, government agencies and industr y par tners.

Prior to joining Airbus, Stanley held senior positions in the civil aerospace, defence and helicopter markets, as well as

in strategic management and M&A planning, having worked with the Linde Group, UTC, Prat t & Wh i t n e y, Lo c kh e e d M a r t i n a n d Sikorsky. Over his career he has worked ex tensively internationally, with more than two decades of involvement in Asia and the Pacific region.

“A n a n d h a s b r o u g h t a w e a l t h o f experience to Airbus and managed the company’s operations in India with ver y positive results,” said Christian Scherer. “His proven track record makes him the right choice to lead Airbus in the key Asia-Pacific market. We know that we can count on Anand to focus on supporting our customers in these most challenging times, while developing fur ther our position as the leading par tner for the aerospace sector in the region.”

Stanley has an MBA from the Universit y of Virginia-Darden in the US, a B achelors of Engineering from Andhra Universit y, as well as a postgraduate degree from IMI-D elhi.

Stanley succeeds Patrick de Castelbajac, who is leaving Airbus.

“O n behalf of all of us at Airbus, I would like to thank my friend Patrick for his contribution and strong engagement during his years with Airbus and wish him all the ver y best in his personal and professional future,” added Scherer.

Sunday, June 7, 2020

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American Air’s 74 percent jump in flying signals travel on the mend

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merican Airlines Group Inc. surged the most on record after the carrier said it would boost July flights 74 percent compared with this month, signaling that US travelers freed from shelterin-place orders are returning more quickly than expected.

The busiest days next month will have about 4,000 flights, up from 2,300 in June, said Vasu Raja, American’s senior vice president of network strategy. The July figure is equivalent to 40 percent of capacity a year earlier, compared with 30 percent in June, the airline said Thursday. Capacity was even less in May, after a devastating collapse in flying spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“People are hungry, eager to get back into the economy,” Raja said in an interview. “We feel a real confidence to fly a much bigger July.”

American’s expanded schedule builds on recent indications from rivals that customers are starting to make their way back onto planes, at least for domestic flights, after fleeing in April because of the coronavirus. While traffic is still weak by historical standards, the airline’s trends suggest that the worst has passed—and that the rebound in demand has a chance of outpacing the dire expectations the industry was outlining as recently as last month.

The airline’s shares jumped 41 percent to $16.72 at the close in New York, the biggest gain since trading began in 2013. American’s surge was tops on the S&P 500 Index and sparked a broader industry rally, with the next two slots on the stock gauge claimed by United Airlines Holdings Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc. Delta Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian said Wednesday that the company plans to operate twice as many domestic flights in July as it did in May. Most will be tied to the carrier’s Atlanta hub.

United is taking an approach to July that is in some ways more cautious than American’s, with plans to operate about 30 percent of its domestic capacity compared with a year earlier. While that’s a sharp increase from this month’s schedule, it lags American’s goal of flying 55 percent of domestic capacity. Still, United’s peak-day departures will total about 1,960 in July, from 1,100 in June.

American’s load factor, or the average share of seats

filled per plane, climbed to 55 percent last week from 15 percent in April. Next month, the company will bring back some of the 450 jets it parked during the worst of the collapse in flying, although it hasn’t determined which aircraft will be put back in service.

While revenue is still down 80 percent from a year ago, that’s an improvement from the 90-percent drop American experienced in the depths of the crisis as demand nearly disappeared, said CEO Doug Parker.

He recently made a personal trip on Southwest Airlines Co. because American’s flights were booked to new capacity limits that have been set to promote social distancing onboard.

“We have a long road ahead,” Parker said in an interview with CNBC. “But it’s coming back.”

Optimism’s limits American acknowledged the limits to the improving outlook. Demand is still weak on lucrative routes to overseas destinations, with the company planning to fly less than 20 percent of last year’s international schedule.

Also, American delayed the planned resumption of additional foreign routes by at least a month.

Even with the encouraging signs at home, the domestic recovery is “tenuous,” Raja said. The Fort Worth, Texas-based company is still retiring more than 100 aircraft, including

three separate f leet types.

Wall Street expects a full recovery to take years for the airline industry, with Moody’s Investors Service predicting “severely depressed” demand for flights next year and no substantial recovery until 2023. Jamie Baker, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co., said American’s lingering international weakness was a warning sign.

“We are surprised by the deluge of today’s investor inquiries, following American’s disclosure, as to how positively it should impact earnings and liquidity forecasting,” Baker said in a report. “In our opinion, it should not. In fact, a reasonable extrapolation of American’s domestic-centric commentary implies that 3Q consensus revenue forecasts [and, by extension, liquidity forecasts] may need to worsen somewhat.”

And for all of American’s expectations for July, realtime passenger data has yet to show a dramatic uptick. An average of 314,000 people went through US airport security checkpoints in the past week, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

That’s 13 percent of the equivalent week a year ago and only slightly above the 12 percent recorded the prior week.

But based on current trends as encompassed by American’s plans for July, the nadir may be in the rear-view mirror.

The number of daily passengers has grown to 110,330 from 32,154 in the first three weeks of May and “ is inching north

all the time,” Raja said. By comparison, the airline carried about 600,000 passengers daily preCovid 19.

Summer vacations The recent gains range from business to leisure trips, Raja said. Corporations are relaxing travel restrictions in states such as Texas and Florida that have eased quarantine requirements.

Vacationers are booking flights to amusement parks in Florida, beaches along the Gulf Coast and mountain destinations in Montana, Utah and Colorado.

American resumed service to six international cities Wednesday, but will delay until August or later other flights from the US to Europe and Latin America.

The airline’s full July schedule will be available for purchase starting June 7.

United and Delta also are resuming some overseas flights, but lucrative international business traffic is expected to be the slowest area to rebound. Confusion over which countries have lifted travel restrictions and whether tourist attractions, hotels or other industries are open has contributed to the slower global recovery, Raja said.

American also will begin reopening its loyalty club lounges in phases starting June 22, after making improvements to encourage social distancing and reduce the possible spread of Covid-19. The measures include shields at desks and foot-operated door openers.

Bloomberg News

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The World BusinessMirror

Sunday, June 7, 2020

Covid-19 strands merchant ship crews at sea for months

By Elena Becatoros &Theodora Tongas

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The Associated Press

THENS, Greece—For nearly four months, Capt. Andrei Kogankov and his oil tanker crew haven’t set foot on dry land. With global travel at a virtual standstill due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Russian captain was forced to extend his normal contract. He still doesn’t know when he’ll be able to go home.

Countries across the world have imposed lockdowns, shut borders and suspended inter nationa l flights to curb the spread of the new coronavirus. Merchant ship crews have become unintended collateral damage.

About 150,000 seafarers are stranded at sea in need of crew changes, according to the International Chamber of Shipping.

Roughly another 150,000 are stuck on shore, waiting to get back to work.

“In some ways, they’ve been the forgotten army of people,” said Guy Platten, secretary-general of the ICS. “It’s not a tenable position to keep on indefinitely. You can’t just keep extending people,” said Platten.

With more than 80 percent of global trade by volume transported by sea, the world’s more than 2 million merchant seafarers play a vital role.

“They’re out of sight and out of mind, and yet they’re absolutely essential for moving the fuel, the food, the medical supplies and all the other vital goods to feed world trade,” Platten said.

Inter nationa l shipping organizations, trade unions and shipping companies are urging cou nt r ies to recog n i z e mer chant crews as essential workers and allow them to travel and carr y out crew changes.

“Our challenge now is to get a very strong message to governments. You can’t expect people to move [personal protective equipment], drugs and all the issues that we need to respond to Covid-19,

and keep cities and countries that are in lockdown fed, if you don’t move cargo on ships,” said Steve Cotton, general secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Federation, or ITF. “They’ve got to recognize the sacrifice seafarers are making for our global society.”

Kogankov is seven months into a four-month contract and was supposed to be replaced in midMarch in Qatar. But a few days before he arrived, Qatar imposed a lockdown and banned international flights.

From there to South Korea, Japan, South Korea again and on to Singapore and Thailand, each time the same story: Lockdown.

No flights. No going home.

The open-ended extension of his contract—and with it the responsibility for his 21-man crew and a ship carrying flammable cargo—is taking its toll.

“When you are seven months on board, you are becoming physically and mentally exhausted,” Kogankov said by satellite phone from Thailand. “We are working 24/7. We don’t have, let’s say, Friday night or Saturday night or weekends. No, the vessel is running all the time.”

Officers sign on for three to four months, the rest of the crew for around seven months. But they always have an end date.

Take that away, and suddenly the prospect of endless workdays becomes a strain.

“We’re gravely worried that there could be a higher increase of incidents and accidents. But we also are seeing a high level of

Anchored ships are seen miles away from the port of Piraeus, near Athens, Greece, on May 26, 2020. During the new coronavirus pandemic, about 150,000 seafarers are stranded at sea in need of crew changes, according to the International Chamber of Shipping. Roughly another 150,000 are stuck on shore, waiting to get back to work. AP/Petros Giannakouris

what I would describe as anxiety and frustration,” Cotton said. “If you don’t know when you’re going to get off a ship, that adds to a high level of anxiety that really is quite demoralizing.”

Unless governments facilitate crew changes, Cotton warned, “it’s difficult for us to convince the seafarers not to take more dramatic action, and...stop working.”

It’s not just crew changes that are problematic during the pandemic. Getting medical help for seafarers has also become difficult, as Capt. Stephan Berger discovered when one of his crew fell ill—not with coronavirus.

Lockdowns in successive ports made visiting a doctor impossible.

It took multiple phone calls and the combined efforts of a Dubai paramedic, Berger and the German ship-owning company to eventually get the necessary care for the crewmember, who was hospitalized for three weeks.

Of the 23 people aboard Berger’s Berlin Express, 18 were due for a crew change when it moored in Valencia, Spain, in late May. The officers had extended what were normally three-month contracts to four and five months, while the mostly Filipino crew had been on board for eight or nine months, instead of three or four.

Despite this, morale has been good, Berger said.

Nobody is particularly happy with the contract extensions, “but we have to take it as it is,” he said.

“It feels sometimes like a prison.”

Ship-owning company Hapag-

Lloyd was doing everything it could to arrange crew changes and managed to arrange for the seven European crewmembers to sign off in Barcelona on May 30, Berger said. But there are still no flights home for the Filipino crew.

“We are very much hidden. We are on board our vessels, and the people might see the big ships coming in and out of the ports, but very seldom they see the people who are operating the ships,” Berger said. “We hope that people would recognize it a little bit more now.”

On another Hapag-Lloyd container ship, apprentice Hannah Gerlach was to sign off in midMarch in Singapore. But even as her vessel headed to Asia, it was clear that wouldn’t happen. Gerlach packed her bags for an earlier departure from Sri Lanka, but by the time she arrived, so had the lockdown.

“I definitely miss my family very much....And I miss just these moments of a normal life, to have the possibility to go out for a walk, to the forest, to ride the bicycle,” Gerlach said. “You don’t know any more when your contract will end, when you have the chance to see your family again.”

David Hammond, founder of the Human Rights at Sea organization, said many seafarers “have really been at the end of their tether” due to contract extensions. “The reality is that until there is global cooperation among states and shipping entities....then crew change is going to be very problematic.” AP

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Donald Trump emulates strongman tactics, tests his limits as President

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ASHINGTON—A phalanx of law enforcement officers and soldiers is positioned on the streets of the nation’s capital to keep protesters at bay. Helicopters circle overhead, sometimes dipping low to buzz the crowd.

The country’s leader warns that he’s willing to go further to “dominate” the streets.

In words and in actions, President Donald Trump is increasingly emulating the strongman leaders he has long admired as he seeks to tamp down protests over police brutality that are roiling the United States. In doing so, he is stretching the powers of the American presidency in ways rarely seen, and testing the willingness of the Pentagon to follow along.

His actions have forced a public reckoning among both current and former military leaders, as well as a handful of Republican politicians. Some of their concerns center not only on the actions Trump has already taken, but also on how far he may be willing to go in an election year, particularly if the political winds appear to be moving against him.

“Perhaps we’re getting to the point where we can be more honest with the concerns that we might hold internally and have the courage of our own convictions to speak up,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican from Alaska. She added that she was unsure whether she could continue to support the president in November.

Face off

The president’s face-off against Democrat Joe Biden will be the ultimate inflection point, a moment when the nation decides whether to shift course or press forward with Trump at the helm for four more years.

The choice between the two men has become increasingly stark as the nation confronts a confluence of public health, economic and civil rights crises, with Trump aggressively embracing the mantle of a “law and order” president in an attempt to project strength in uncertain times.

Biden, for his part, has called the election a moral test and a “battle for the soul” of the nation.

Trump made a similar appeal to voters in 2016 and drew support from disaffected, largely white Americans. As commander in chief, he has the extraordinary power of the federal government and military at his disposal to back up tough talk with action.

His willingness to do so has become apparent during the protests that followed the death of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. The demonstrations across the country have been largely peaceful but marred by outbursts of violence.

On Monday night, the president warned in a Rose Garden address that he would deploy active-duty soldiers to the states if local law enforcement and National Guard members couldn’t get control of the protests. As he spoke, officers outside the White House aggressively dispersed a crowd using smoke canisters and pepper balls so the president could walk to a nearby church and pose with a Bible. He was flanked by Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, who was dressed in combat fatigues.

The stunning scene played out on live television and drew comparisons to crackdowns in authoritarian countries. Trump has long praised the broad powers of leaders in those countries, including Russian President Vladimir

Putin and President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines.

Former Pentagon official Kori Schake said Trump’s threats to use the military to crack down on American protesters was unsurprising given his past rhetoric and actions.

“The military is just the latest American governmental institution to have the president try and erode the democratic norms and crush the institutional independence of the organization,” said Schake, now at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.

Breaking point

Still, Trump’s words and actions Monday night became a breaking point for some.

“Never did I dream that troops ... would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens— much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside,” Gen. Jim Mattis, Trump’s first defense secretary, wrote in a statement published by The Atlantic. Mattis’ comments were all the more extraordinary given that he has resisted criticizing the president since announcing his resignation in 2018.

It’s unclear whether the warnings this week from Mattis, Murkowski and others carry any sway with voters or signal any broader shift within the Republican Party. Trump faced a similar insurrection among members of the so-called establishment before the 2016 election and ultimately prevailed with a comfortable Electoral College victory. His grip on the GOP has tightened during his more than three years in office given the loyalty of his core backers.

Some of those supporters have publicly closed ranks around the president during the protests, applauding his administration’s heavy-handed response and urging him to take more aggressive actions to quell demonstrations that get out of hand.

“These conditions can shift rapidly in any city across the country and the president needs to have the tools and the equipment and the information needed to move quickly to protect our citizens if that’s what’s necessary,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, Republican, Arkansas

Narrow path to poll victory

Yet it’s clear that the crises battering the nation have shifted the ground beneath Trump. His response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been uneven, and the resulting financial slowdown has upended his plans to run for reelection on the back of a strong economy.

His embrace of a strongman strategy may well be a way to rally his most ardent supporters, appeal to a sense of uncertainty many Americans are feeling and lock down a narrow path to victory in November. Yet it has also left his critics anxious about the steps he may be willing to take between now and then.

“It’s hard to envision any line that Donald Trump won’t cross or anything he won’t do,” said Peter Wehner, a veteran of three Republican administrations and an ardent critic of the president. “The question is whether the system of government, and the people who make up government and the court would be able to check him.” AP

Virus diary: Sweden stayed open, I stayed at home

By Phelan Chatterjee The Associated Press

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TOCKHOLM—Early April. A buzz of my phone. “Free for a walk?” asks a friend. Another notification. “Coffee on Wednesday?”

“Come for drinks!”

I’m at a loss. I’m working remotely from Stockholm, out of the London office. Long shifts producing stories on how swaths of the world’s population are staying home to keep the virus at bay and quash staggering death counts.

But outside my door, I’m confronted by a different reality. Sure, university students are distance learning, travel is discouraged and many are working from home. But plenty of my friends are working normally. When I cycle into a leafy inner-city quarter on Easter Sunday, I find bars brimming and families flocking to parks.

Official advice tells anyone not “vulnerable” to stay home only if

symptomatic, and to socially distance when out. We’re not actively seeking herd immunity, they say. But equally, we don’t want to suppress the virus by locking down, testing and tracing.

Authorities stress their plan is evidence-based and sustainable.

That the virus can’t be contained in the long run. Ultimately, they say, don’t judge our strategy on its death toll. Evaluate the situation “in four to five years’ time.”

But doubts linger, and fester, in my mind. There’s a jarring disconnect between covering what feels like a whole world taking major precautions and living in a country that isn’t.

I can’t get the images I’ve been processing for hours at work out of my head. WHO’s Dr. Tedros urging the world to “test, trace and isolate.”

Drone shots of silenced old towns in Belgrade and Sarajevo. Masked Hong Kong officials reporting single-digit mortality rates.

In Sweden, a vast acceptance of

In this May 21, photo provided by Pascal Chatterjee, Phelan Chatterjee works at home in Telefonplan, Stockholm. Pascal Chatterjee via AP the strategy has swept across the nation. Parties left to right have rallied behind the authorities. Noteworthy dissent has come from 22 scientists, demanding more restrictions and testing, but they have been broadly dismissed as unhelpful and obsessive.

Researcher Gina Gustavsson suggests this stems from the country’s pride in its democracy, openness and scientific research. To challenge the strategy is to challenge Swedes’ most cherished values. There’s a pride in staying open and trusting the experts.

Ina Hallström argues this faith has meant people widely believe that the fast-rising levels of death we’re witnessing are inevitable—when that might not necessarily be the case.

T hese deat hs have e x posed cracks in the Swedish nation, leaving some in disproportionately affected groups wondering how much their lives really matter.

Swedish-Somalis, seven times overrepresented in April ’s case numbers, have slammed the Christian Democrats’ leader for linking this to “illiteracy.” Instead, they point to socioeconomic factors; an inability to work remotely and overcrowded households.

Eric Hammarstrand, who is disabled and at risk, asks why able-bodied Swedes couldn’t bear the thought of locking down, when many disabled people “were involuntarily quarantined until 1993” before independent living reforms. “You can do it, too, for a few months.”

I realize I can’t leave my friends on “read” forever. Eventually, I tell them the truth: I miss them, but I’m not comfortable meeting right now. I want to continue seeing my parents for distanced lakeside walks. Let’s Zoom.

They say they fully understand. But it’s still an awkward endeavor, and I feel like an overcautious outsider.

Late May. Even as transmission slows, Sweden’s death toll has soared to over 4,200—four to nine times higher per capita than Nordic neighbors. Antibody levels are disappointingly low.

A sense of unease finally seeps into the national debate, expanding as the nights contract.

A party close to government calls for change. Health Minister Lena Hallengren indicates testing and tracing may be ramped up.

Dazzling sunshine in the courtyard belies the anxious parallel life I’ve been living. I wonder if now, perhaps, I’ll feel less out of place.

Science

BusinessMirror

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D.O.S.T.-SEI offers scholarships for 2021 undergraduate students

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he Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is calling on the youth to join the science community by pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

This, as DOST’s Science Education Institute (SEI) announces the availability of scholarship slots for the 2021 DOST-SEI S&T Undergraduate Scholarships for incoming Grade 12 students in Academic Year (AY) 2020-2021 who intend to pursue STEM courses enroll in college.

The scholarship program aims to push for knowledge-driven development through S&T human resource advancement.

“Amid the uncer tainty [brought by the coronavirus], we soldier on in providing scholarship oppor tunities for college studies. The DOST Scholarship invites talented Filipino youth to pursue STEM-related careers and take active participation in research and development [R&D] activities. We hope to have more scientists especially in this changing world,” said DOST-SEI Director, Dr. Josette T. Biyo.

Applicants for the scholarship must be naturalborn Filipinos of good moral character and in good health. Application is open to students in the STEM strand. Those in the non-STEM strand may also apply

provided they belong to the top 5 percent of their graduating class.

Students who belong to families whose socioeconomic status does not exceed the cut-off values for certain indicators may apply for Republic Act 7687 scholarship program, otherwise, applicants may apply for the Merit Scholarship Program.

To be able to enjoy the scholarship, applicants should pass the 2021 S&T Undergraduate Scholarships Examination and pursue a Bachelor of Science degree program in any of the priority fields of study at a state university or college or any private higher education institution that is recognized by the Commission on Higher Education as Center of Excellence or Center of Development, or with at least FAAP Level III accreditation for the Bachelor of Science program that they intend to enroll in.

The deadline for online application is on August 28. The date of nationwide qualifying examination is on October 25.

For the complete list of requirements, priority programs, and study placements, visit SEI’s web site at www.sei.dost.gov.ph.

Interested applicants may apply online through https://www.science-scholarships.ph/.

VCO lotion, cream help moisturize hands to prevent infection

Sunday

Sunday, June 7, 2020 A5

DOST’s agencies develop more tech vs Covid-19 From robotics, telepresence device to logistics support

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emote-controlled robots for virtual communication between medical personnel and Covid-19 patients through wireless Internet connectivity? Telepresence devices that automatically answer calls? Disinfection chambers? Tracking system on health facilities’ medical resources? Mobile app and a Web portal that serve as platform for information on relief packs and cash assistance distribution?

Yes, they are among the new technologies—among many others—developed by Filipino researchers being deployed by the Department of Science and Technology’s agencies Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD) and by the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD) with their respective partner academic institutions private firms to help in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

The new technologies provide frontliners better ways to deal with the pandemic, and help save more lives in the country.

UST’s Lisa Robot allows virtual communication between medical personnel and Covid-19 patients to prevent virus transmission.

GO-CLEAN Disinfection Chamber

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id you know that the skin is the body’s first line of defense against infections? US dermatologist Dr. Joyce I. Imahiyerobo-Ivan Ip of Norwell, Massachusetts, advises her patients against over handwashing.

But with worries against contracting the deadly coronavirus, handwashing has become the prime sanitation protocol. It has become quite a preoccupation by everybody.

In a March 11 interview with Jeneé Osterheldt, a Nieman Fellow at Harvard and culture writer of The Boston Globe newspaper, Imahiyerobo-Ivan Ip said, “Mother Nature has given us a protective barrier in our skin. We have antimicrobial peptides in our skin to help fight off infection. What happens when your skin gets excessively dry, inflammation [occurs] and it impairs the barrier.”

Moisturize for added protection A sanitation protocol to help prevent the spread of Covid-19 was released in mid-March by the Philippine government’s Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases. It advised the practice of frequent handwashing for at least 20 seconds to remove the virus from the hands.

And as the Philippines’s Covid-19 cases continue to rise, there is a lot of handwashing—but no moisturizing.

Imahiyerobo-Ivan Ip noted that if the hands are dry, ashy and cracking, that puts people at greater risk of infection. She advised the liberal use of moisturizers because “the skin is our first line of defense.”

But while the best defense is hand hygiene, she explained that part of this is maintaining the skin’s barrier, which should be done by moisturizing hands.

VCO enriched lotion at DOST ITDI

Which moisturizer or lotion should people go for?

Imahiyerobo-Ivan Ip said it may be wise to refrain from using water-based lotions.

She explained that all areas of contact in public areas require sanitizing of hands with alcohol-based sanitizers, while soap and water are used at home.

Her advice? Go for oil-based creams to maximize moisture.

Consumers can choose from a variety of commercially available moisturizers, which contain

several types of oil or butter, including argan oil, jojoba oil and shea butter.

Luckily, the Industrial Technology Development Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-ITDI) has been at work on developing a hand and body lotion and cream enriched with the popular miracle oil now—virgin coconut oil (VCO).

Led by Dr. Rosalinda C. Torres, Scientist I and Chief of the Standards and Testing Division of ITDI, together with her all-women team, is capitalizing on the unique properties of VCO. Currently the hottest product in the market, VCO is riding on the crest of a national interest spurred by the need to find a “cure” for the Covid-19 disease. The DOST is spearheading laboratory tests and clinical trials to check whether VCO can be used as a supplement against Covid-19.

Long established by chemists and pharmacologists in the West for possessing antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties, DOST-ITDI’s VCO-enriched hand and body cream and lotion explored their antifungal properties.

Fungal infections are generally very difficult to treat, albeit many are superficial; that is, they occur on the skin. A product that can inhibit skin fungal infection is, thus, very valuable.

To this end, Torres has conducted and proven in clinical tests the efficacy and safety of the lotion and cream as antifungal products.

For the tests, the lotion and cream with 5 percent concentration of VCO were tried to determine their inhibitory activity and reactivity against two fungal strains, Microsporum canis and Candida albicans.

The former causes ringworm of the scalp and body. The latter can cause skin infection in the armpits, groin and the skin between the fingers and toes.

As expected, the lotion and cream arrested the growth and infection of the two fungal strains.

Further, these were found to be safe for use as shown by the negative dermal irritation results.

Truly, complying with the Covid-19 sanitation protocol can be drying our hands. But who says that healthy, beautiful hands and skin, as our first lines of defense against infections, cannot be ours when DOST-ITDI’s VCO-enriched lotion and cream are here for you? AMGuevarra/S&T Media Service

Created by Usher Technologies Inc., a DOST-PCIEERD and Mapua University spin-off company, the GO-CLEAN Disinfection Chamber is a mobile unit that sanitizes the body of a person entering the enclosure.

Proper protocols are designed in order to ensure the protection of sensitive areas, such as the eyes, nose and mouth, from possible irritation brought about by the disinfectant mist.

It can be installed at the entrance of hospitals and other establishments, and it provides sanitation through the misting of electrolyzed saline solution, or Anolyte, that takes up only to 5 seconds to 10 seconds per person.

Anolyte is a disinfectant that is lethal to bacteria and viruses but is very safe for people and the environment.

It has been well known to scientists since the early 1900s and is produced through a process of electrolysis using only brine solution and tap water.

The key component produced is hypochlorous acid (HOCl), which occurs naturally in the human body.

White blood cells actually produce minute quantities of HOCl when fighting off infections.

The unit comes in single and dual chamber variants. The wet chamber for disinfectant fog and misting, may include a thermal scanner, automatic alcohol dispenser, rack for disinfecting materials.

Further development will include breathing pattern determination, and coughing detection system.

The biggest advantage of GOCLEAN will be its Hoclomac system that will allow the chamber to produce its own disinfection solution. This will be the first and one of a kind in the world.

Usher Technologies has already deployed a total of 11 GO-CLEAN units at the following locations: four units in Quezon City; one in Camp Crame; one at the Development Bank of the Philippines (Makati); one at the Lung Center of the Philippines; one in Camp Aguinaldo; two in Santiago City; and one at the DOST Science Heritage Building.

The group can currently produce around four to five units of their GO-CLEAN system per week.

TrAMS+

In partnership with University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, the Tracing for Allocation of Medical Supplies (TrAMS+) is an online geographic system developed for tracking information regarding health facilities’ medical resources.

This system relies on crowdsourced and volunteered information that may be used by government agencies, donors and other interested parties as a tool for effective

The mobile GO-CLEAN Disinfection Chamber developed by Usher, led

by Dr. Francis Aldrine Uy to hepl mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.

response in the distribution of the much-needed medical resources.

The project team will regularly update its database and display the daily inventory of hospitals, improvement of web site features, design of mobile app, among others.

Lisa Robot

The Logistic Indoor Service Assistant Telepresence Robot (Lisa Robot), developed by Asst. Prof. Anthony James C. Bautista, PME, PhD, from the University of Santo Tomas (UST), is a remote-controlled wheeled device that offers virtual communication between medical personnel and Covid-19 patients by means of a computer, tablet or smartphone with wireless Internet connectivity.

It also has a box that holds the medicines for patients.

Lisa robot has three levels of automation: Level 1 is the most basic automation where the medical personnel can control the Lisa robot through a handheld transmitter sending commands to a receiver; Level 2 automation allows the robot to be controlled over a WiFi anytime, anywhere; and Level 3 automation is based on Simultaneous Localization and Mapping wherein the robot makes a map of the hospital and navigates through obstacles using 2D Light Detection and Ranging sensor.

While Levels 2 and 3 automation will be implemented after the Covid-19 pandemic due to limited resources brought by the recent enhanced community quarantine, Level 1 automation is low-cost, easy to build using readily available materials, and can be controlled by an operator at 5 meters to 10 meters away.

The first model has received positive feedback from Dr. Emilito Santos of Pasig Doctors Medical Center and Dr. Marcellus Francis Ramirez of UST Hospital who tested the unit on April 6.

While the production of one unit usually takes four to five days, the project targets to produce at least four units of Level 1 automation for its beneficiaries including UST Hospital, Pasig Doctors Medical Center, Marikina Valley Medical Center, and Binangonan Lake View Hospital.

Project Ramdam

The Project Resource Allocation Management, Distribution and Monitoring

(Ramdam) system, developed by Geographic Innovations for Development Solutions Inc. in partnership with DOST, is an initiative composed of a mobile app and a web portal that could serve as a platform for residents and local government units (LGUs) to share accurate information regarding relief packs and cash assistance distribution.

Project Ramdam aims to provide efficient data management and monitoring for the LGUs, and feedback and request mechanism for the residents.

The team field tested this innovation in some barangays of Los Baños, Laguna, and is currently preparing the pilot testing results for possible nationwide implementation.

Telepresence devices

Through another computerized system, health-care workers at the UP-Philippine General Hospital (UPPGH) can connect with their patients without physically being present in Covid-19 wards.

The telepresence devices “limit exposure, conserve personal protective equipment [PPE] and provide clear communication with a friendly face.”

The devices not only help nurses and doctors. Anxious and lonely patients, who are isolated from their families and moral support system, can also remotely communicate with their loved ones in their fight to survive the disease.

The technology involves “computers programmed to automatically answer calls from authorized accounts using available teleconferencing and remote-control applications, thus, minimizing contamination and allowing effortless access even by patients with no technological know-how,” according to Dr. Edward Wang.

They were developed by the UP Manila-College of Medicine Surgical Innovation and Biotechnology Laboratory (UPM-CM Sibol) Covid Task Force led by Wang. Sibol is composed of collaborating clinicians from UP Manila, and engineers, scientists and artists from UP Diliman.

The device is the first Sibol product deployed by the team at UP-PGH after two weeks of collaboration.

“Inspired by triage booths initially set-up to screen ambulatory patients, the team, led by Dr. Nathaniel Orillaza Jr. [Orthopedics], Dr. Pros Naval [Computer Science] and Dr. Luis Sison

Telepresence device terminal developed by UPM-CM Sibol

and Dr. Roel Ocampo [Electronics and Electrical Engineering Institute] assembled devices which allowed healthcare workers to connect to patients remotely,” Wang said.

The technology was funded by the DOST-PCHRD. “Covid-19 is projected to require a massive inventory of medical supplies.

This was the impetus for us to convene the Sibol Covid Task Force,” Wang said.

The task force, recently formed to support the fight against coronavirus pandemic, is composed of three teams working on Disinfection, PPE and Telemonitoring.

Sibol, a Filipino term for germination, is an existing program of DOSTPCHRD, which originally aims to “use locally sourced materials and technology to produce much needed surgical and medical devices in the country.”

Materials used for initial deployment were sponsored by Xavier School Class of 1975, while wooden stands were designed, manufactured and subsidized by Projektzulu Co.

Innovative products for frontliners

DOST Undersecretary Dr. Rowena Cristina Guevara, for Research and Development, expressed gratitude to Filipino researchers who worked tirelessly in coming up with needed solutions and moving with top speed.

“Getting innovative products, processes and services in the hands of those at the forefront in the Covid-19 response is our goal as we make change happen through research and development,” she said.

DOST PCIEERD Executive Director Dr. Enrico Paringit is optimistic and extremely proud about the contributions of Filipino innovators who came up with creative ways to help the country’s frontliners.

“We are facing a challenge like never before and we need to work together. Our goal is to take down barriers and bring the best ideas to combat the virus through science, technology and innovations. The Council, through its partner industries, will persistently provide the same incredible support and ensure the safety of all Filipinos,” he said. S&T Media Service

Faith A6 Sunday, June 7, 2020

Sunday

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion •www.businessmirror.com.ph

50% Church capacity allowed in MGCQ areas

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he government has eased its restrictions in places of worship under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra affirmed his earlier statement that Churches in MGCQ areas can hold services at 50 percent capacity.

He said that the rule was adopted on June 3 by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases in its amended omnibus guidelines.

“Religious services in MGCQ areas are allowed up to a maximum of 50 percent of the total seating capacity or venue,” Guevarra said.

He added that the decision is “subject to the government’s minimum health standards and any additional protocols imposed by your respective congregations.”

The Justice chief made the statement in a message to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on Wednesday evening, through Bishop Mylo Hubert Vergara of Pasig.

Vergara represented the CBCP

during the recent meetings between the gover nment’s polic y-ma k ing body in its Covid-19 response and the religious sector.

Some bishops have earlier raised concerns over the limited participation of individuals in religious gatherings.

But the IATF kept the 10-people limit on religious gatherings in GCQ areas like Metro Manila due to the big number of coronavirus cases.

Other areas under GCQ include Region 2, Region 3, Region 4A (Calabarzon), Albay, Pangasinan and Davao City.

Meanwhile, a more relaxed MGCQ is in place in the rest of the country.

Cebu archdiocese limits parishioners during Masses

In Cebu City, as Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia issued an executive order (EO) encouraging religious gatherings observing 50-percent limited capacity, the Archdiocese of Cebu released a protocol in the holding of Holy Masses

Msgr. Bernard Pantin, assistant secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, celebrates Mass at the CBCP chapel in Intramuros, Manila, on June 1, the start of general community quarantine in Metro Manila. CBCPNEWS during GCQ and MGCQ. On Tuesday, Garcia issued EO 17-F limiting the venue or seating capacity during religious services to half.

“These gatherings shall also be subject to strict social distancing and other health protocols prescribed by the religious organization or denomination,” Garcia said in the order.

Archbishop Jose Palma, in his issued protocol on religious services during GCQ and MGCQ, said a “halfhour gap” between Holy Masses shall

be observed to allow churchgoers to leave after the Mass and others who will arrive for the next Mass.

“By reason of dispensation granted by the Archbishop, the faithful can fulfill their Lord’s Day obligation by attending the Evening Masses [4 p.m., 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.] of Wednesday to Saturday. Encourage the faithful to come during weekday if they cannot come on Sundays,” the protocol said.

However, it recognized “obligation suspended” in case the faithful could

not fulfill the Lord’s Day obligation because of difficulty or impossibility to be present during the Mass.

The protocol requires all people attending the Mass, including servers (acolytes, laymen and readers) to wear face masks.

However, the archdiocese mandates that only one or two altar boys should be allowed while those below 18 years old must get parent’s permission.

During the Mass, persons who will prepare the host, water and wine for the priest’s consecration will have to strictly follow the proper hygiene and health protocols.

Msgr. Ruben Labajo, parish priest of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Balamban west of Cebu, said there will be changes in the communion.

The priest will show the Sacred Host to the people and say “the Body of Christ” only once and the people answer “Amen” after which the Host will be distributed by hand.

There will be no more holding of hands in saying The Lord’s Prayer, Labajo said, and a simple bow or smile as a sign of giving peace.

“We are very happy with the decision of Governor Garcia in allowing us to hold Masses. If the executive order requires 50 percent capacity, she can be assured that our pews are wider and

the people can sit even more than a meter apart from each other,” Labajo told the Philippine News Agency.

The monsignor added that “devout Catholics are now very eager to participate in the Holy Eucharist after two months that they are not allowed to go to church.”

Labajo said the Church in Cebu observes the health protocols to ensure prevention of contamination of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Despite physical celebration, the protocol encourages the parishes to live stream their Sunday and weekday Holy Masses to cater to those who cannot participate in community celebrations due to sickness, old age, fear and caution.

The Archdiocesan Commission on Social Communications is helping parishes for their online capability, especially on the gadgets and Internet connections.

The Church here continues to prohibit Masses, especially first Friday celebrations, in private homes, factories and offices.

Parish Churches have assigned entrances and exits with signage for proper flow of churchgoers so that “incoming people will not meet the outgoing ones.” Marshalls will be assigned to guide the faithful, the protocol said.

CBCPNews and PNA

Christian leaders speak out against anti-terror bill Communion unchanged in Greek

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he country’s Christian leaders banded together to oppose an anti-terrorism measure “that reeks of the dark days of the Marcos martial law.”

In a joint statement released on June 3, the faith leaders claimed that the measure will “insidiously” strip away respect for human rights.

The Church leaders’ position came as the House of Representatives approved the bill on third and final reading, putting it just a step away into becoming a law, with just the signature of President Duterte being awaited.

According to the Church leaders, the bill is likely to be “misused and abused” by those who wish to “lord it over” the people, obliterate opposition and quell even the most legitimate dissent.

“This bill will cause a further shrinking of democratic space and weakening of public discourse that will be detrimental to our nation,” the statement read.

“We believe that the anti-terrorism bill will insidiously strip away respect for human rights and other civil liberties,” they said.

They also called on other religious leaders to speak out now and oppose the bill before it’s too late.

The Church leaders are opposing the bill on the following grounds: n An “overly broad and amorphous” usage of the term terrorism that could be used to attack dissent and curtailment of human rights and civil liberties. n A “weakening” of the judicial system and the constitutionally enshrined function to checkand-balance the actions of other branches of government. n Allowances for surveillance, wire-tapping and invasion of privacy of any individual on mere suspicion of being an alleged terrorist, even without any evidence of wrongdoing. n Warrantless arrests and detention of persons for a period of 14 days without charges. n A removal of financial penalties to be awarded to persons detained under false pretense as well as other safeguards against abuse by police officers and soldiers, “thus, increasing the likelihood of gross impunity for misconduct by state forces.”

Signatories of the statement included Bishop Broderick Pabillo of Manila, Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos, Bishop Reuel Norman Marigza of the National Council of Churches in the

Church people from the National Council of Churches in the Philippines call for the junking of the anti-terrorism bill during a protest in Quezon City on June 2.

MARK SALUDES/LICAS.NEWS Philippines and Bishop Rhee Timbang of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente.

Bishop Emergencio Padillo of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, Bishop Joel Porlares of the Ecumenical Bishops Forum, La Salle Br. Armin Luistro and Benedictine Sr. Mary John Mananzan were also among those who supported the statement.

“We are speaking, even as we recognize that to do so is dangerous. For such a time as this, to remain silent only assures the impending destruction and abuse of our people,” they added.

With 173 affirmative votes, 31 negative votes, and 29 abstentions, the House passed House Bill 6875, or the proposed Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, which seeks to prevent, prohibit, and penalize terrorism.

The bill’s third reading approval came a day after it was approved on second reading. Congress dispenses with the three-day rule for measures certified by President Duterte as urgent.

Duterte on June 1 certified the bill as urgent “to address the urgent need to strengthen the law on anti-terrorism in order to adequately and effectively contain the menace of terrorist acts for the preservation of national security and the promotion of general welfare.”

The House bill is similar to the Senate version that was approved in February to fast-track its approval and avoid convening a bicameral conference.

The bill introduced provisions imposing life imprisonment without parole on those who will

participate in the planning, training, preparation, and facilitation of a terrorist act; possess objects connected with the preparation for the commission of terrorism; or collect or make documents connected with the preparation of terrorism.

Under the bill, any person who shall threaten to commit terrorism shall suffer the penalty of 12 years. The same jail term will be meted against those who will propose any terroristic acts or incite others to commit terrorism.

Any person who shall voluntarily and knowingly join any organization, association, or group of persons knowing that such is a terrorist organization, shall suffer imprisonment of 12 years.

Meanwhile, those who shall recruit another to join, commit or support any terrorist organization shall be punished with a penalty of life imprisonment without the benefit of parole.

Bishop: Unite against anti-terror bill

A Catholic bishop has called on the public to unite against the passage of a new anti-terrorism measure which he branded as “vague.”

Bishop Alminaza has warned that no one is exempted from the proposed law’s “dangerous” provisions, even Church people.

“It is high time that citizens and members of civil society organizations set aside their differences to combat the passage of this bill,” Alminaza said.

“Now more than ever, we need the power of dissenting voices in the current state of political

and public health in our country,” he said.

While the fight against terrorism is legitimate and necessary, he stressed that the respect and defense of human rights must of “paramount consideration.”

“We maintain that the proposed law is open to abuse by despotic governments to visit terror against critics and the people in general,” according to Alminaza.

“This government is criminalizing dissent, further suppressing criticism, while at the same time evading accountability, in the guise of combating terrorism,” he said.

The prelate claimed that because the bill expands the existing and already “broad” definition of terrorism, any form of protest or criticism may be considered a “terroristic act.”

He warned that even the Church’s exercise of the prophetic mission may be affected “and one can be accused of such ‘crime’ without due process.”

“The proposed amendments sully the very Constitution that guaranteed a democracy and every citizen’s right to free speech and redress,” the bishop added.

“We believe that these provisions further violate the right to due process, contribute to the shrinking of democratic spaces, and promote a culture of abuse of power among authorities,” he said.

Bishop warns against anti-terror bill

Saying that it’s prone to abuse, a Catholic bishop has expressed concern to toughen the country’s anti-terrorism policies.

“It’s dangerous,” said Bishop Emeritus Arturo Bastes of Sorsogon as Congress moved closer towards enacting the new law.

According to him, there is no need for the bill because existing laws are effective enough to fight criminal elements and terrorism.

He instead urged legislators to enact laws to improve the lives of the people during the coronavirus crisis.

“Congress should enact laws that give life and hope, not laws that inject terror and more suffering,” Bastes added.

“Our poor people are already burdened with poverty and all kinds of suffering. They need positive laws to help them live in dignity and peace,” he also said. CBCP News and PNA

Mosques reopen in Saudi, Jerusalem amid virus woes

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UBAI, United Arab Emirates—Tens of thousands of mosques across Saudi Arabia reopened last week for the first time in more than two months, with worshipers ordered to follow strict guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus as Islam’s holiest site in Mecca remained closed to the public.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Islam’s holiest site outside of Saudi Arabia, also reopened for prayers for the first time since it was closed in mid-March.

With little regard for social distancing, throngs waited outside the holy site’s gates before it opened last Sunday, with many wearing surgical masks.

As they were allowed to enter, the faithful stopped to have their temperature measured.

The mosque was one of Jerusalem’s many holy sites, including the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Western Wall, whose access was restricted at the height of Israel’s coronavirus outbreak.

Throughout that period, worshipers continued

to pray in the alleyways outside the mosque.

Jews also resumed their pilgrimages last Sunday to the hilltop compound they revere as the Temple Mount, site of the two Jewish biblical temples.

In Saudi Arabia, the government prepared for the reopening of around 90,000 mosques after sanitizing prayer rugs, washrooms and shelves holding copies of the Quran, the Muslim holy book.

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs said millions of text messages were sent to people in multiple languages to inform them about the new rules for public prayer, which include keeping a two-meter distance between people during prayer, wearing face masks at all times and abstaining from greeting one another with handshakes or hugs.

Children under 15 years old were not being allowed inside mosques. The elderly and those with chronic conditions were being told to pray at home.

People were also advised to perform the mandatory ablution at home since washrooms at

mosques will be closed, to use hand sanitizers and to bring their own prayer rugs and copies of the Quran.

The restrictions call for mosques to open just 15 minutes before each of the five daily prayers and to close 10 minutes after they conclude. Friday sermons and prayers are to last no longer than 15 minutes.

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia also lifted a ban on domestic air travel and permitted some public sector workers to resume office work, though full attendance will not be allowed until mid-June.

The new measures come as Saudi Arabia and other countries around the world begin to loosen restrictions and stay-at-home orders following weeks of curfews and lockdowns.

However, the Grand Mosque in Mecca, which houses the cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims around the world pray toward, will remain closed to the public.

The city has been under a strict lockdown for several weeks. The mosque in Medina, where the Prophet Muhammad is buried, will be partially

opened to the public to pray outside.

The continued closure of Mecca points to the increasing likelihood that the kingdom may suspend this year’s annual Muslim hajj pilgrimage, which falls in late July.

Already, a senior Saudi official has told prospective pilgrims not to plan for the hajj this year amid the global pandemic.

Despite taking early and unprecedented measures to curb the spread of the virus, Saudi Arabia has recorded more than 83,000 people contracting the virus, including 480 deaths.

Israel has recorded fewer than 300 deaths and mostly kept its daily infection count to the low dozens since the beginning of May. But it also imposed severe restrictions that battered its economy and sent its unemployment rate skyrocketing.

Many of those restrictions, including on places of worship, began to be eased earlier this month. AP

Orthodox Church despite virus

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THENS, Greece—One by one, the children and adults line up for the centuries-old ritual of Holy Communion, trying to keep a proper social distance.

The priest dips a spoon into the chalice of bread and wine, which the faithful believe is the body and blood of Christ, and puts it into the mouth of the first person in line.

Then, with a move that would alarm an epidemiologist, he dips the spoon back into the chalice and then into the next person’s mouth.

Again and again, through the entire congregation.

Contrary to what science says, the Greek Orthodox Church insists it is impossible for any disease—including the coronavirus—to be transmitted through Communion.

“In the holy chalice, it isn’t bread and wine.

It is the body and blood of Christ,” said the Rev. Georgios Milkas, a theologian in the northern city of Thessaloniki. “And there is not a shred of suspicion of transmitting this virus, this disease, as in the holy chalice there is the Son and the Word of God.” This is proven, he said, through “the experience of centuries.”

Scientists warn that shared utensils can spread the coronavirus, and they also point to outbreaks linked to religious services around the world.

A communal spoon presents “fairly significant dangers,” said Dr. Nathalie MacDermott, an academic clinical lecturer for Britain’s National Institute for Health Research at King’s College London.

“The danger of transmitting any kind of respiratory viral pathogen or even bacterial infections is quite high with the sharing of utensils,” she said. “And for it to be passed among what is probably a relatively large group of people means that all it would take is one person to have coronavirus at the back of their throat, which potentially is in their saliva as well.”

The Holy Synod, the Church’s governing body, says any suggestion that illness or disease could be transmitted by Holy Communion is blasphemy, a stance echoed by the Church of Cyprus.

“Regarding the issue that is unjustifiably raised from time to time about the supposed dangers, which in these blasphemous views are said to lurk in the life-giving Mystery of Holy Communion, the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece expresses its bitterness, deep sorrow and diametrical opposition,” it said in a May 13 circular on social-distancing measures in churches.

The Synod “underlines one more time to all those who, either due to ignorance or conscious faithlessness, brutally insult all that is holy and sacred, the dogmas and the sacred rules of our faith, that Holy Communion is ‘the medicine of immortality, antidote to not dying, but to living according to the teachings of Jesus Christ forever.’”

Whether Holy Communion should be changed or suspended for health reasons has become a hot button issue across much of the Christian Orthodox world, with churches generally refusing to bow to pressure from governments and scientists.

The church in the US is taking a more pragmatic approach, allowing the use of individual spoons.

“The issue of a single Communion spoon poses a very simple question: What is more important, the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, or the method by which we receive them?”Archbishop Elpidophoros, head of the Archdiocese of America, told The Associated Press. “The answer is just as simple; it’s not the method; it’s the Divine Communion itself.”

Elpidophoros said some have felt uncomfortable

sharing a spoon during the pandemic.

“Why should these people, whose anxiety is real, be deprived of Communion?”he said.“That is precisely why I decided, after much consultation, that parishes may offer Holy Communion for every parishioner using multiple spoons that are not shared.”

Concessions also were made in Russia. In mid-March, the Russian Orthodox Church released instructions on adjusting the sacrament during the pandemic.

Priests were told to wear gloves when handing out the bread, to disinfect the spoon and to use disposable cups for the wine.

In Ethiopia, which has the largest Orthodox Christian flock outside Europe, the ritual is unchanged, as it is in the Georgian Orthodox Church.

In response to public pressure against using a common spoon, the Georgian church noted the tradition is thousands of years old.

“Throughout these years, there have been many cases of life-threatening infections, during which Orthodox believers did not fear but strived even harder to get Communion through a common chalice and a common spoon,” it said in a statement.

In Greece, a firebrand priest, former Metropolitan Ambrosios, said he had excommunicated the education minister, prime minister and the civil protection deputy minister—the first for suggesting the coronavirus could be transmitted through saliva during Holy Communion, and the other two for closing churches during the lockdown.

The Holy Synod, however, said only it had the authority to excommunicate.

Greece imposed a lockdown early on, a move credited with curbing infections. The country has reported 175 deaths and just over 2,900 confirmed cases.

But many of the faithful chafed under the lockdown that closed places of worship for all religions for about two months. It ran through Easter, the most important religious holiday for Orthodox Christians, and the inability to attend services weighed heavily on many.

When the ban was lifted on May 17, thousands flocked to church.

“The issue of Holy Communion in particular is the only red line of the church and of the faithful in our souls,” said 19-year-old Michalis Gkolemis, attending services in Thessaloniki. “We don’t say that Holy Communion is the cure for all diseases, from the flu, for example, but we say that you cannot get sick by receiving Communion. You can’t catch a virus, something which isn’t proven scientifically but exists through experience.”

After ordering churches closed, the government has been more circumspect and has avoided the sensitive issue of Communion. The limited spread of the virus also has reduced the risk of a renewed outbreak, at least for now.

For scientists, concern is tempered by knowing that opposing the powerful Orthodox Church, into which most Greeks are baptized, could be counterproductive.

“This is a matter of public health concern,” said Dr. Gkikas Magiorkinis, assistant professor of hygiene and epidemiology at the University of Athens. “As an epidemiologist, I would like to be able to reduce the risk of transmission.”

But changing the minds of the faithful is “very difficult,” he said. “It’s a matter that can only be solved through discussion, and theological discussion rather than scientific discussion.

Scientific discussion never helped, and it might have even worse results.” AP

Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Sunday, June 7, 2020

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

A7

DENR to showcase 107 Protected Apayao’s Mount Sicapoo Areas through Facebook Live

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he Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), through the Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB), will showcase over 100 Protected Areas through a monthly online conference via Facebook Live starting June 22 The launching of the monthly 60-minute program, 12 episodes in all, dubbed “Protected Areas for a Protected Future” coincides with the second anniversary of the enactment of Republic Act 11038, or the Expanded-National Integrated Protected Areas System (E-Nipas) Act of 2018.

The online conference is in partnership with, and will be hosted by environmental advocate Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda.

Under E-Nipas, that amended RA 7586 the Nipas Act of 1992, the number of legislated Protected Areas increased from 13 to 107.

“All 107 Protected Areas will be showcased starting on June 22. There will be a two-minute to three-minute portion where the Protected Areas will be featured. There will be 12 Protected Areas per [monthly] episode,” said Assistant Secretary Ricardo Calderon, concurrent director of the DENR-BMB.

He said a live interaction hosted by Legarda will give a chance to the Protected Areas Superintendents and DENR regional executive directors with jurisdiction over the Protected Areas to discuss the importance of the area, and the various programs to protect and conserve the rich biodiversity in the area.

“We want to highlight our Protected Areas as a way of ensuring that our future is protected in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Calderon said.

The DENR official underscored the need to protect and conserve the country’s rich biodiversity, which is one way of protecting and preserving human life against future pandemics.

The monthly conference, he said, will also showcase the people behind the scenes, the foresters and the staff of the Protected Area Management Office and the DENR’s partners who help protect the important areas set aside for conservation.

He said they decided to use Facebook to reach wider audiences, noting the popularity of the social-media platform among Filipinos, young and old alike. Jonathan L. Mayuga

Malampaya-supported sea rangers continue protection of vital ecosystem

Haven of mountain forest mice Graphical illustrations of forest mice—Luzon shrew, Cordillera forest mouse, Cordillera striped earth-mouse, Cordillera rhynchomys and Kalinga shrew-mouse. Velizar Simeonovski/Field Museum of Natural History

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By Jonathan L. Mayuga

t is not just about the birds, the bees, the flowers and the trees.

Mount Sicapoo, the highest peak in Apayao province in the Cordillera Administrative Region, is also about bats and wild pigs, deers and the environment-friendly mountain forest mice.

In a province which boasts of rich biological diversity, Mount Sicapoo is home to a diverse species of mountain forest mice that provide tremendous benefits to people and the environment.

The mountain is in Kabugao and Calanasan, Apayao province, although a portion is in Ilocos Norte, which is the more famous trail to its peak.

Mammals of Mount Sicapoo

Bantay Dagat volunteers from Barangay Pili in Oriental Mindoro show the MFI food package

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eputized volunteer sea rangers, or Bantay Dagat, continue to protect the natural coastal resources along the coasts of Northern Palawan, Oriental Mindoro and Batangas City despite the difficult circumstances brought by the Covid-19 lockdown.

“Guarding the marine protected areas is crucial at this time to conserve marine resources as some fishermen may try to come in and fish illegally in the area. It needs continuous management and protection for the recovery and replenishment of fish stocks and others,” Gorgonio Polilan, a Bantay Dagat member from Coron, Palawan, said in Filipino.

The Malampaya Foundation Inc. forged co m m u n i t y - b a s e d m a r i n e b i o d i ve r s i t y conservation partnerships in the area. The community enforcers are supported by MFI as part of its conservation agreement commitment to strengthen the protection of marineprotected areas (MPAs) and the enforcement of environmental and fisheries laws in the different areas.

Approximately 60 percent of Filipinos live in coastal zones, and marine resources form a critical part of their sustenance and livelihood.

But harmful fishing practices and unregulated exploitation put these resources at risk.

Since the implementation of the enhanced communit y quarantine (ECQ) amid the coronavirus pandemic in March, the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR) and its partners in the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) have reported that several apprehensions of violators have been made, the most common violation being the use of an illegal type of fishing net.

In June last year, the US Agenc y for International Development estimated that the Philippines loses almost P68.5 million annually to illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.

A total of over 140,000 hec tares of community-managed MPAs and an estimated economic value of P1.6 billion in marine resources are under the watchful eye of the Bantay Dagat volunteers and their partners in the Provincial Agriculture Office, the MPAs, local government units (LGUs) and enforcement networks, and the national agencies like the DABFAR, the PNP-Maritime, and the PCG. At the onset of the ECQ, MFI immediately deployed food support to the Bantay Dagat volunteers consisting of a 25-kilogram sack of rice each, fresh and processed meats, and fresh vegetables. It was able to help 365 families of the

environmental frontliners in Palawan, Oriental Mindoro, and Batangas.

Oriental Mindoro Bantay Dagat volunteer, Marites Asi, 47, shared in Filipino, ““MFI has extended immediate support to us sea rangers especially now. They have been very helpful to us.”

“Being a part of the skeletal force during this pandemic is not an easy task. Conducting patrols, responding to environmental threats and providing assistance to the community while abiding by the rules and regulations of the ECQ are a tough challenge,” said El Nido National Park ranger Hero Jeff Isidro.

He added: “The support provided by the MFI, such as the rice subsidy and groceries, is a great help during these challenging times, especially to those whose means of livelihood are heavily affected by the lockdown. The trainings and seminars hosted by MFI also boosted our knowledge to further enhance our services for environment protection.”

MFI provide regular support to Bantay Dagat with other conservation incentives annually such as insurance, livelihood support, annual rice provisions and vocational scholarships for qualified family members.

The foundation forged individual conservation partnerships with the provincial and LGUs, and different communities since 2013 to launch community-based actions in the establishment of new and expansion of existing MPAs and Fisheries Management Areas.

These partnerships have been responsible for the implementation of responsive MPA management plans, rehabilitation of degraded coastal species-forming habitats, regular monitoring, socioeconomic support to fisher families, and education drives.

Since 2013, 18 out of 35 MPAs covered by the conservation partnerships have been recognized as Best-Managed MPAs at the local, regional, and national levels.

The MPAs have seen increasing fish abundance and reef recovery with several areas exhibiting a return of endangered species after years of absence, such as the napoleon wrasse, sea cow, and apex predators like the black-tip shark.

MFI is the social arm of the Malampaya Joint Venture partners formed in 2005 to work with communities and implement social development and environment conservation programs in the operating areas of the Malampaya Deepwater Gas-to-Power project.

Shell Philippines Exploration BV operates the Malampaya Deep Water Gas-to-Power project on behalf of the SC38 consortium.

A report on sur veys of the mammals of Mount Sicapoo suggested that the mountain is home to mammal species that live only high on the mountain and might be genetically isolated from their nearest relatives further south of the province.

The report was written by Lawrence R. Heaney, Anna L. Petrosky of the Field Museum of Natural History based in Chicago, Illinois, and Eric A. Rickart of the Natural History Museum of Utah, Salt Lake City.

Started in February last year, the study aimed to conduct comprehensive surveys of the fauna and flora of Apayao.

The result of the study boosts the bid of Apayao province to earn the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Biosphere Reserve title.

The study was the first published scientific account of the mammals of Apayao.

It was a collaborative project of the Philippine Eagle Foundation, the Apayao province, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and Apayao State College.

Responding to a BusinessMirror interview via e-mail on May 18, Heaney, who has conducted extensive studies on the mammals of Luzon, said a manuscript on the study on the mammals of Mount Sicapoo has been submitted to a peer-reviewed scientific journal and expressed hope to see it published by the end of the year.

Mountain forest mice

During the almost three week the surveys were conducted, the group camped out in the woods near the peak of the mountain where they collected live specimen in three different sampling areas and elevations.

Small and large mammals, bats and bird species were gathered by the team.

Among those recorded were various species of, but closely related to, forest mice that are native to Luzon, four of which live on high elevation areas in the Central Cordillera.

The species were the Luzon shrew, Cordillera forest mouse, small Luzon forest mouse, the least Luzon forest mouse, the large Luzon forest rat, the silver earth-mouse,

the Cordillera striped earth-mouse, the common Philippine forest rat, the Kalinga shrew-mouse and the Cordillera rhynchomys.

They were all basically mice that can be found in Luzon.

The report described the different species’s way of life, basically their hunting or feeding habits and diet.

Heaney, asked about their diet, said the small mammals, which were the focus of the report, feed on a wide range of foods.

“Some eat mostly tender young grass and some seeds; some eat only earthworms; one eats mostly crickets, small frogs and earthworms; one eats insects and any other small animals,” he said.

Completing the food chain

The mountain forest mice complete the food chain in Apayao ensuring ecological balance as they feed on worms, insects, and later on become prey to other animals themselves—some to snakes, lizards or birds of prey.

For one, the giant cloud rat, which eats bamboo shoots and tender leaves and bark, in turn, are eaten by the Philippine eagle.

The giant cloud rat, the largest of the species the group studied, weighed up to about 2.7 kilograms.

“The small species of mice are eaten by owls and by the small civets that live in the area, which in turn are also eaten by the eagles,” he said.

Healthy population, tremendous benefits

There’s a thriving population of mountain forest mice on Mount Sicapoo, Heaney said, largely because the natural forest is not disturbed by human activity.

He said the healthy population of the mice on the mountain has tremendous benefits to both the environment and people of Apayao.

“First, the forest of which they are a crucial part of provides the watershed for the people of Apayao and nearby provinces. Rainfall is highest up high on the mountain; when the forest is in good condition, the rainfall is absorbed into the ground and slowly released during the dry season, providing water for home use, agriculture, and industry. Second, the mice and other native small mammals provide the food base for Philippine eagles and other birds that are forming the basis for the ecotourism industry that is developing in Apayao,” he said.

Source of pride, no adverse impact

Moreover, Heaney said the presence of the unique species is the source of national pride add ing t hat “ver y few ot her countries have such unusual and interesting animals.”

The peak of Mount Sicapoo (back) as viewed from Kilang Pass in Calanasan, Apayao province. Jayson Ibañez

Finally, he said the native mice prevent the non-native pest rats that live around people from moving into the forest; that helps to prevent the pest rats from becoming even more common.

He added that the native mammals that live in the forest very rarely cause any adverse impacts to people.

“They avoid people actively, and are not known to carry any diseases to people. The damage that is done to agricultural crops and to stored food, and the diseases carried to people are not [caused by] native animals,” he said.

Pest rats, he said, are unable to survive in the forest.

“The non-native rats, the ones that people see, live only with people and the places where people are active,” he said.

Ecologically ‘very healthy’

Heaney said they observed that Mount Sicapoo is “ecologically very healthy and teeming with native trees,” including some that have survived generations and had lived over a hundred years.

“The natural forest is in very good condition and appears to be very stable. Many of the trees high on the mountain, though they are short and twisted, are probably more than 100 years old,” he noted.

One important factor linked to the forest’s health is the protection provided by the people “This ecological stability is the result of protection of the forest and watershed by the people of Apayao.

When a natural forest is allowed to maintain itself—when it is simply left alone—it is able to maintain its natural functions and require very little active management,” he said.

Unique forest, better state

According to Jayson Ibañez, director for Research and Conservation of the Philippine Eagle Foundation, being the highest point in Apayao, Mount Sicapoo is unique as it consists mostly of mid-to-high elevation (montane to mossy) forests.

“The surrounding forest across Apayao, on the other hand, is mostly lowland dipterocarp forests. There are dipterocarp forests in Apayao which is not as pristine as the unique montane and mossy forests of Sicapoo, but there are also spots where dipterocarps are pristine, and primary,’” he said, citing Marag Valley in Pudtol, Apayao, in an e-mail interview with the BusinessMirror on May 20.

However, he said, comparing the montane and mossy forests of Mount Sicapoo to Mount Pulag of Benguet, also in Cordillera, where farms have caused much deforestation and degradation even up to the peak, Mount Sicapoo is in a better state.

Local conservation area

Ibañez underscored the benefits of Apayao’s Lapat, a natural resource traditional management practice of indigenous people in the province, wherein an area is declared a sacred ground and becomes “off-limits” to disruptive human activities “And since the entry into the Lapat areas is prohibited, they become accidental wildlife sanctuaries where animals reproduce and replenish any deer or wild pig mortalities due to hunting,” he said.

The DENR supports local conservation areas, such as the Lapat system.

DENR Assistant Secretary Ricardo Calderon, concurrent director of the Biodiversity Management Bureau, said more importantly, the department respects the way of life, including the cultural practices of indigenous peoples in protecting and conserving the environment and natural resources.

“We recognize local conservation areas like the Muyong of Ifugao, and Lapat in Apayao. These are traditional conservation practices and we have partnerships with Indigenous People’s in these areas,” Calderon told the BusinessMirror in an interview late last month.

In Apayao, he said the protection and conservation of the environment and natural resources, in a way, can be attributed to such practices by local folks.

Sustainable food source

Ibañez said maintaining the current pristine state of Apayao’s forest and watersheds ensure the survival not only of animal wildlife but also of the people dependent on nature’s bounty for food and water.

“Habitat is an important factor.

Because there are adequate and quality food sources, shelter and breeding places and wildlife could thrive. Because people do not also overkill them, [animal] populations thrive,” he said.

“In places where deer and wild pig have been lost, its this evil tandem of habitat loss and overhunting which drive species to extirpation [extinction in some places]. Of the two, overhunting is even more disastrous because the population can be lost [even] when good habitats are available,” he added.

For Apayao, he believes its healthy forest also ensures the survival of the indigenous Isnag culture into the future.

“If you look at it closely, a forest ecosystem is the foundation of the knowledge systems and practices of the Isnag, as well as almost all Philippine indigenous peoples in the uplands.

Healthy forests, therefore, allow the f lourishing of cultural diversity,” he explained.

Sports BusinessMirror

A8 |

Sunday, June 7, 2020 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

POSTPONEMENT MAJOR HEADACHE

THE International Olympic Committee seeks insurance compensation for the delayed Tokyo Games. AP

By Graham Dunbar

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The Associated Press

ENEVA—The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is in talks with insurers over being compensated for the postponed Tokyo Games.

An “open discussion” is under way with insurance brokers, the IOC’s Olympic Games operations Director Pierre Ducrey said Thursday.

The aim is “to try and find the right level of compensation to help us bear the cost of having to

wait another year,” Ducrey said.

The IOC pays for insurance against the cancellation of an Olympics but it has been unclear if its policy covers the one-year postponement forced by the coronavirus pandemic.

Cancellation policies detailed in the IOC’s annual accounts cost $14.4 million for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and $12.8 million for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games.

The IOC said last month it set aside $650 million to cover its own potential extra costs for the postponement.

Costs for organizers in Japan are expected to reach billions of dollars, with most of the bill paid for by taxpayers.

Ducrey said retaining the Olympic Village for another year was “problem No. 1.”

The complex of more than 5,600 apartments in Tokyo Bay is “a fundamental piece of being able to deliver the games,” Ducrey said during an online conference with sports management students in India.

Around 25 percent of the apartments have been pre-sold to people who will move in after the

Olympics are over, and those buyers are set to receive some compensation for having to wait an extra year before taking possession.

“Obviously you have planned your whole life about getting this apartment at that point in time,” Ducrey said. “Now we have to tell all of these owners, ‘Oh, sorry. Your apartment will be delivered to you a year later.’”

“It is a huge change and requires a number of compensations and discussions,” he said.

Public officials in Tokyo and Olympic organizing committee staffers said they expect the games to be “streamlined and simplified” to manage costs, and with fewer fans in venues.

Opposition group NON aux JO2024 à Paris, meanwhile, launched a petition calling on the French government to cancel the 2024 Olympic Games in the French capital.

The group, whose name translates as “No

to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris,” said the current economic and social crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic “deserves more funding than the Olympic Games.”

Concerns over the potential for considerable cost overruns and the financial impact of the possible cancellation of Tokyo 2020, postponed until 2021 due to the Covid-19 virus, are also expressed by NON aux JO2024 à Paris in the petition.

NOlympics LA, a group opposed to Los Angeles staging the 2028 Olympic Games, is among the co-signatories of the petition.

“We cannot make our way toward a new world along the misguided path of the old one,” the petition stated. “We must reject the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. We must invest in health, education, housing and public services.”

“The current economic and social crisis

Exercise boom in lockdown inspires athletics federation

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ORLD Athletics will launch a new campaign to support those who have discovered the sport in lockdown, during which research indicates that exercise has increased by 88 percent.

The initiative is part of the four-year strategic plan announced by track and field’s international governing body, along with new details of the qualification system for the Tokyo Games, for which next year’s World Relays, in Silesia, have been confirmed as a qualifying event.

The plan—full details of which will be available at the end of June—has been discussed recently in three online meetings involving the World Athletics President

Sebastian Coe, and representatives of the 214 member-federations.

Noting that the World Athletics headquarters has been opened this week after an 11-week closure, Coe said: “Over the next few months we have an unprecedented opportunity on the back of the increased physical activity of people in lockdown.”

“The latest research from runrepeat.com shows that exercise has increased by 88 percent during lockdown and running and walking has topped the tables,” Coe said. “We need to inspire these people to continue the habits they have learned and we will with our own campaigns but also by embracing campaigns that many others in our sport are driving.”

Stadium virus prevention veers spotlight toward fan privacy

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HE metal detectors every sports fan has become accustomed to at the gate might soon be accompanied by thermal body scanners as part of the gargantuan task of preventing the spread of the new coronavirus and other airborne diseases.

And that might be just one thing the public will need to be comfortable with in order to bring games back for in-person viewing.

Tickets have widely transitioned from paper souvenirs to smartphone screens, but how about using your face as your proof of purchase Nascent forms of crowd monitoring—like laser-driven density detection and camera-based calculations of line length—will likely grow faster in a post-pandemic era of live sports that must highlight hygiene.

“The pandemic really ups the need for greater assurance of stadium safety,” said Bob Boland, an athletics official who teaches at Penn State and has more than two decades of experience in sports and law as an instructor, consultant and agent. “Vaccine treatments, containment, they all could be game changers, but people will need to be comfortable with mass body temperature screening and other technology that could be in play.”

Not unlike the aftermath from the 2001 terrorist attacks, when long waits to pass through magnetometers and have a security guard wave a wand over pants pockets became the norm.

“After 9/11 we overdid it, meaning we were

so intent on making every building be safe and everyone safe that we made it extremely inconvenient to go to games and events. But we said that it would get better over time, and it did,” said Marc Ganis, cofounder of the Chicago-based consulting firm SportsCorp.

“Now how do you do that?”

Technology will be a vital piece of the puzzle. It will also further test a fan’s willingness to potentially sacrifice a little more privacy in exchange for the opportunity to sit courtside or behind the plate again.

“Can I say both?” said Jim Mueller, a

deserves more funding than the Olympic Games. The Olympic Games are a symbol of unchecked globalization, and a threat to the environment and to our heritage,” it added.

“Above all, they are an immense waste for the benefit of some [corporate sponsors, real-estate developers, the construction sector...] that we can no longer afford.”

The coronavirus pandemic has led to fresh calls for a referendum on Paris hosting the 2024 Games, while City Council officials also relaunched the debate on the city staging the event.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said in a recent interview with the L’Équipe newspaper that “these are the same doubts that were expressed at each stage of the case, the same respectable oppositions” and said organizers would have to “integrate the lessons of this health crisis” into the planning of the Games.

Coe One of the key elements of the plan is called Fans.

“We have continued to engage with our community through the innovative Athletics@Home and the Ultimate Garden Clash projects, and we will soon launch a campaign to encourage and assist those who have discovered our sport through running during lockdown to continue to stay fit and healthy as the world emerges from the pandemic,” Coe said.

The plan stated that by 2024, the aim is to increase broadcast reach, double-digital following and create a database of 1 million known fans who actively choose to connect and engage with the sport. Insidethegames Milwaukee Bucks season ticket holder who also buys partial packages to Milwaukee Brewers and Green Bay Packers games. “I understand it from the Bucks’ perspective and the NBA perspective, but as an American I don’t want to be traced.”

Dave Karls has Bucks season tickets too, eager enough for his next visit to Fiserv Forum that having his location trackable in the arena would not interfere with the enjoyment.

“I’d much rather have that than not be able to attend the game at all,” Karls said.

Any concerns depend on an individual’s definition of surveillance, a word that carries a nefarious connotation in some corners. In some countries, the effort this year to stem the outbreak of Covid-19 with contact tracing has included citizen consent to location registration. AP

SECURITY wands fans before an opening day baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Montana, in April 2015. AP

Even a skeptical Warren Buffett can’t stop this crypto-world casino czar

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BusinessMirror JUNE 7, 2020 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

IN THIS LIFETIME

YOUR MUSI

Ben&Ben’s new song comes from a fan’s heartbreaking story

By Stephanie Joy Ching

T

HE ongoing COVID-19 pandemic may have taken a lot of things from artists and musicians including the ability to make ends meet and perform before a live audience. But there is apparently at least one that no coronavirus can ever take away from creative individuals and that is inspiration.

Publisher

: T. Anthony C. Cabangon

Editor-In-Chief

: Lourdes M. Fernandez

Concept

: Aldwin M. Tolosa

Y2Z Editor

: Jt Nisay

SoundStrip Editor

: Edwin P. Sallan

Group Creative Director : Eduardo A. Davad Graphic Designers Contributing Writers

: Niggel Figueroa Anabelle O. Flores : Tony M. Maghirang, Rick Olivares, Darwin Fernandez, Mony Romana, Leony Garcia, Stephanie Joy Ching Pauline Joy M. Gutierrez

Columnists

: Kaye VillagomezLosorata Annie S. Alejo

Photographers

: Bernard P. Testa Nonie Reyes

Y2Z & SOUNDSTRIP are published and distributed free every Sunday by the Philippine Business Daily Mirror Publishing Inc. as a project of the

The Philippine Business Mirror Publishing, Inc., with offices on the 3rd Floor of Dominga Building III 2113 Chino Roces Avenue corner Dela Rosa Street, Makati City, Philippines.

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Circulation: 893-1662; 814-0134 to 36. www.businessmirror.com.ph

BEN&BEN

For the überpopular folk-pop band Ben&Ben, inspiration can come from different sources, sometimes even from the most unexpected places.

In the case of their latest single, “Lifetime,” inspiration came from netizen who goes by the user name Anna Jou. During an online press conference held through Zoom to promote the song, the band shared that the song was inspired by a comment from a user by the name of Anna Jou on their music video for one of their biggest hits, “Pagtingin.”

To date, the official music video has generated over 29 million views and over 13,000 comments, yet it was Anna Jou’s particular comment that stood out like a sore thumb.

In her comment that she posted three months ago, she admitted to developing feelings for her male best friend but was unable to tell him about it because she was afraid it would ruin their friendship.

“The like I felt for him became love. I wrote poems, songs. After

8 years, I attended his wedding last January. And guess what? The world is really overly-cruel. Before his wedding, he thanked me for being his best friend and told me that before he met the girl he got married to, he loved me first. For 5 years…We didn’t know that if only one of us dared to make a move, a lifetime was waiting for us,” Anna Jou recalled.

This specific part of Anna Jou’s story struck a chord with Ben&Ben and ultimately inspired twin brothers Paulo and Miguel Guico to write and produce a song about it with the rest of the band.

Other than the fact the song was borne out of a YouTube comment, one of the most striking things about “Lifetime” is the fact that its recording process was so much more different than what the band is used to.

With the pandemic forcing everyone to stay at home, the band was prompted to use only their basic set-ups at home, where sometimes soundproofing is far

from ideal. Amazingly, the lack of soundproofing somehow allowed the song to develop a rustic, organic charm.

Under the capable hands of renowned sound mixer Leon Zervos, best known for his work with the likes of Pink, Rihanna, Maroon 5, Beastie Boys, and Willie Nelson, the rain that was a problem during the recording sessions seamlessly wove itself into the narrative, enhancing the melancholic, Simon & Garfunkel like elements of the song and giving “Lifetime” a more compelling punch.

As for Anna Jou, she has since edited her comment and added a fitting postscript to her heartbreaking experience.

“I hope you guys would learn from my mistake. I hope we will experience the love that we deserve, maybe not now, but in our lifetime,” she concluded.

Released under Sony Music Philippines on June 4, Ben&Ben’s “Lifetime” is now available on Spotify and other digital/streaming music platforms.

IC

soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | JUNE 7, 2020

BUSINESS

3

RHYTHM & RHYME

by Kaye Villagomez-Losorata

LOUD AND CLEAR

Singers turn up the volume of their social media voice

J

UST when you think we’ve hit rock bottom, there’s basement one.

As if fighting a global pandemic is not enough, in the US, George Floyd is murdered and suddenly the world finds itself in a Black Mirror meets Contagion x The Purge kind of situation.

As we see unbelievable live stream videos and social media posts of violence in the US, we lift this quote from Max Brooks’ World War Z: “Most people don’t believe something can happen until it already has. That’s not stupidity or weakness, that’s just human nature.”

All over social media, singers and musicians have been using their voices in a different, louder manner over what’s going on.

Adele posted a Floyd photo on her Instagram account with, “disheartened, hijacked or manipulated right now; this is about systematic racism, this is about police violence and it’s about

inequality. And this isn’t only about America! Racism is alive and well everywhere. I wholeheartedly stand in solidarity with the fight for freedom, liberation and justice.”

Meanwhile, Billie Eilish, who’s supposed to be on top of the music world these days wrote different “lyrics” in support of the Black Live Matter movement. She said, “All lives matter.

No-one is saying your life doesn’t matter. No-one is saying your life is not hard. This is not about you. Society gives you privilege just for being white.

We have to address hundreds of years of oppression of black people.”

Pink chimed in by sharing the young singer’s post with this caption, “The epitome of white privilege.

You don’t even hear yourself and probably never will.”

Rihanna said via Instagram, “Watching my people get murdered and lynched day after day pushed me to a heavy place in my heart.

If intentional murder is the fit consequence for drugs or resisting arrest, then what’s the fit consequence for murder?”

On the other hand, Miss Americana Taylor Swift directed her post to US President Donald Trump. “After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence? We will vote you out in November.”

As if on cue in an online all-star concert, Lady Gaga posts, “Right now is a critical time for the black community to be supported by all other communities so we can put a stop to something that is intrinsically wrong. President Trump has failed.

He holds the most powerful office in the world, yet offers nothing but ignorance and prejudice when black lives continue to be taken.”

Meanwhile, Beyonce emphasized her call for signatures when she decided to engage her followers by saying, “We’re broken and we’re disgusted. We cannot normalize this pain.”

Ariana Grande told her 74.4 million Twitter fans: “A lot of the things feel scary, dangerous and uncertain right now but there are things within our

Billie Eilish

Adele

Pink

control: voting, contacting lawmakers, and taking the census. The most important thing you can do right now to take the power back is become a voter and know your next election.”

Last Tuesday was the day the music died. American labels and musicians called for silence called Black Out Tuesday. Columbia Records, announced on Instagram: “On Tuesday June 2nd, Columbia Records will observe ‘Black Out Tuesday. This is not a day off. Instead, this is a day to reflect and figure out ways to move forward in solidarity. We continue to stand with the Black community, our staff, artists, and peers in the music industry. Perhaps with the music off, we can truly listen.” *** Personal: Happy birthday (tomorrow, June 8) to my mom, Joy Villagomez! I love you to the moon and back.

The author is a former entertainment reporter and editor before shifting to corporate PR. Follow @kayevillagomez on Instagram and Twitter for more updates.

Lady Gaga

Rihanna

Taylor Swift

Even a skeptical Warren Buffett can’t stop this crypto-world casino czar

By Zheping Huang

W

Bloomberg

hen Justin Sun met Warren Buffett for dinner in January, he wasn’t seeking advice on stocks. The crypto mogul had spent a record $4.6 million at a charity auction for the opportunity to lecture the world’s most famous investor on the benefits of Bitcoin.

It was exactly the sort of behavior that Sun’s known for—abrasive, ostentatious and, ultimately, impossible to ignore. Like the $200-billion crypto industry itself, he is young and hungry for the respect of traditional financiers like Buffett, who deems Bitcoin basically worthless.

Still shy of his 30th birthday, Sun founded one of the largest blockchain platforms, Tron, in 2017 and turned it into a virtual Las Vegas with gambling apps. He’s rubbed shoulders with Apple Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. founders, hired celebrity endorsers like the late Kobe Bryant and drawn accusations of plagiarism, which he has denied, more than once. What he says and does can move crypto prices, and his aggressive acquisitions have earned him both admiration and notoriety in the blockchain community on his way to consolidating power.

“I’m a true believer of blockchain. It’s once in a lifetime,” he said in a rare in-depth interview from a luxury office suite overlooking Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour. “It’s only people who don’t understand it who question me.”

Making his personal fortune by embracing Bitcoin as early as 2012, and now by his own account worth somewhere in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Sun is part of a second wave of crypto entrepreneurs who envision putting more than just digital money and payments on a decentralized platform. Last week, Sun and his team touted an upcoming

Warren Buffet (third from left) and Justin Sun in Omaha, Nebraska Tron / Bloomberg major update to Tron, which will include more privacy features and enterprise applications.

Newer blockchains like Tron let developers build so-called decentralized apps, or dapps, on their platforms. Ethereum is the foremost among them, with its cofounder Vitalik Buterin offering a simple analogy: if Bitcoin is a pocket calculator, platforms with dapps are akin to smartphones. But unlike Android or iPhone apps, dapps are decentralized in the sense that they aren’t run on one server or by any single entity.

Sun’s Tron has 342 active dapps and more than 230,000 users, both roughly half Ethereum’s totals, according to data tracker Dapp Review. It’s been accused by researchers like Digital Asset Research of copying Ethereum’s code without attribution, and by Buterin himself of stealing words from other projects’ whitepapers. Tron and Sun have denied both accusations. The bulk of business done on Tron today revolves around the largely unregulated field of crypto gambling, with a January Dapp Review report describing it as “Las Vegas on the blockchain.” In the first quarter, casino dapps comprised 92 percent of Tron’s $411 million total transaction volume, according to the Binance-owned researcher. Sun said the Dapp Review estimate was inaccurate and over-stated the gambling activity on the Tron blockchain.

In fact, such transactions are only a fraction of the total, he said.

Sun “identified niche customer bases, namely gamers and gamblers, that have great reasons to use blockchain, drive a lot of transactions, and are crypto savvy,” said Matthew Graham, chief executive officer of Sino Global Capital, a Beijing-based blockchain consultancy. Since its inception, Tron has been augmented with

the acquisitions of live-streaming service DLive, briefly the exclusive online home of YouTube star PewDiePie, and file-sharing service BitTorrent Inc. Through a partnership with Samsung Electronics Co., Tron dapps can be downloaded via one of the world’s most widely distributed mobile app stores.

Sun has proven himself an able marketer, raising $800,000 in under five minutes through a public token sale for his lending platform, called Just. He also commands an audience of two million Twitter followers.

But he’s also been challenged on basic information. While Sun said he often covers the $5 million quarterly operational costs for Tron, Ryan Dennis, a spokesman for the nonprofit Tron Foundation that coordinates the blockchain platform’s operations, denied that figure—saying they won’t be able to get accurate cost numbers “due to the coronavirus pandemic changing everything on a day-to-day basis.”

As a sociology student in the US, Sun founded an online magazine about current affairs, though it closed after he was accused of plagiarism by another author. Sun has denied the accusation, saying he merely imitated the author’s style.

He then made the switch to tech.

After an unsuccessful attempt to set up China operations for American crypto company Ripple in 2014, Sun went back to the drawing board with $5 million of venture-capital money from backers like IDG Capital and ChinaEquity Group. He tried almost every hot idea in China’s Internet space, finally finding success in Peiwo, which let users connect with random strangers via voice messages. That app would later be slammed by China’s top

state news agency for spreading vulgar and pornographic content.

On social media, he billed himself as Alibaba cofounder Jack Ma’s first millennial protégé, since he was picked up in 2015 by the billionaire’s MBA program. When fellow tech entrepreneurs ran into cash crunches, he was often quick to say he would lend them money. He said he had a 100 million-yuan ($14 million) charity budget for 2019, part of which was distributed in cash giveaway campaigns via his Weibo account.

Sun’s dinner with Buffett is still the banner image on his Twitter profile. The meeting had been scheduled for last July, but three days before the planned date Sun rescheduled, citing a bout of kidney stones. Later that week, he took a selfie and then live-streamed himself with San Francisco’s Bay Bridge in the background to rebut a news report that he was under Chinese border control. He then apologized on Weibo to the Chinese regulators and public for his “excessive self-promotion.” He was banned from the microblogging site at the end of 2019. (Sun now has a team, including a photographer, to manage his Twitter and Instagram accounts.)

When Sun finally sat down with Buffett, his entreaties crashed against a wall of skepticism.

“It’s not just Buffett, the Chinese government also has the same attitude,” Sun said.

Sun shut down his Beijing offices last year, after China launched a renewed crackdown on a crypto industry it views with suspicion.

He said he hasn’t returned to mainland China since the end of 2018, though he’s not prohibited from doing so.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the jet-setting entrepreneur has been stuck in Hong Kong. But he has continued to stumble into controversy. In February, Sun bought the social network Steemit, billed as “owned and operated by its users,” along with 30 percent voting control over its platform. Fearing that gave Sun too much power, part of the Steemit community temporarily froze his stake and then split the blockchain into a whole new branch.

“His playbook might be the optimal strategy during the early barbaric growth period of the crypto industry,” said Wayne Zhao, analyst and managing partner of researcher TokenInsight. “You are nothing without people’s attention, no matter if it’s good or bad.”

Social media, music world go dark for Black Out Tuesday

N

EW YORK—Though Black Out Tuesday was originally organized by the music community, the social-media world also went dark in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, joining voices around the world outraged by the killings of black people in the US. Instagram and Twitter accounts, from top record label to everyday people, were full of black squares posted in response to the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor.

Most of the captions were blank, though some posted #TheShowMustBePaused, black heart emojis or encouraged people to vote Tuesday with seven states and the District of Columbia are hosting the largest slate of presidential primary elections in almost three months.

Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Radiohead, Coldplay, Kelly Rowland, and Beastie Boys were among the celebrities to join Black Out Tuesday on social media. “I won’t be posting on social media and I ask you all to do the same,” Britney Spears tweeted. “We

4 BusinessMirror

should use the time away from our devices to focus on what we can do to make the world a better place... for ALL of us !!!!!”

Spotify blacked out the artwork for several of its popular playlists, including RapCaviar and Today’s Top Hits, simply writing “Black lives matter.” as its description. The opening pages of Apple Music and iTunes focused on supporting Black Lives Matter, and SiriusXM said it will be silencing its music channels for three minutes at 3 p.m. EDT in tribute to “all of the countless victims of racism.” AP

June 7, 2020

Instagram accounts, from top record label to everyday people, was full of black squares posted in response to the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. AP